The First World War has never completely disappeared from the British collective memory since the end of the conflict, but it has especially gained in importance again in the late 1980s and 1990s, both in academia and beyond. The last two decades of the last century indeed saw an explosion in historical writing about the First World War, but also in popular representations. There now exist in Great Britain two main distinct perceptions of the First World War, and their coexistence is seen by some military and political historians in terms of a war of representations that opposes two “Western Fronts”, that of literature and popular culture against that of history. While the latter strives to discover and transmit the “truth” about the past, the former are said to perpetuate what has been called the “myth” of the Great War, understood as an emotionally driven and “false” version of the war. This doctoral dissertation examines fourteen British novels and short stories that were published during the late-twentieth-century “war books boom,” and primarily aims at examining these severe claims of “mythicality,” “ahistoricity,” and lack of creative imagination. It seeks to establish in what forms, to what purposes, and with what effects the First World War has returned in contemporary British fiction. The first part investigates the allegations laid against contemporary WWI fiction by military historians. Chapter 1 first defines the multifaceted term “myth” and looks at the special place it holds in human thought as a foundational story of origins; it also explains how the historical event of the First World War has become part of the British national mythology. Chapter 2 describes the four main elements of the mythical scenario of the Great War (viz. horror, death, futility, and incompetent generalship). It examines how they have shaped the works under scrutiny; it also shows how these writers have attempted to reach beyond the language and imagery handed down by the war poets by telling the “unspoken stories” of the war and rewriting women and the working class back into the postmodern memory of the conflict. Chapter 3 looks at the intertextual dialogue that contemporary WWI writers establish with their poetic forefathers. The second and third parts focus on the recourse to, and conceptualization of, “memory” in contemporary re-imaginings of the First World War. Part Two looks at “shell shock” as the legacy of the war: memory is usually problematized as trauma, as an overwhelming, violent event that has been found impossible to deal with and that therefore lingers, unresolved, in individual and collective memory. Chapter 4 contextualizes the rise of shell shock as a fundamental element in the myth of the war and provides a theoretical framework to the close reading of five novels (i.e. Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy and Another World, as well as Robert Edric’s In Desolate Heaven) that follows in Chapters 5 and 6. These two chapters show how the five selected trauma narratives engage with the contemporary fears of the revenant quality of the past and the possibility of a contagious, transgenerational transmission of trauma. They also raise questions concerning the politics of memory, the adequacy of historical narrative, and the ethics of historical representation. Part Three investigates the questions of remembrance and the duty of memory, which are problematized in all the works under scrutiny. Most contemporary WWI narratives have placed the war in the wider perspective of the century, demonstrating their awareness of their posthistorical situation. Chapter 7 examines the fear that the past is in danger and should be rescued from the work of time and history. Chapter 8 shows how this rescue of the past takes the form of a detective investigation, a metaphor of memory which brings to the fore the agency of memory as process and the inherent textuality of the past, and thus questions the possibility of ever knowing the war. Chapter 9 looks at “sites of memory,” the (textual) traces of the past that make this investigation (im)possible. / La Première guerre mondiale n’a jamais complètement disparu de la mémoire collective britannique, mais elle a à nouveau gagné en importance à la fin des années 80 et pendant les années 90, dans et au-delà du monde universitaire. Les deux dernières décennies du siècle dernier ont en effet été marquées par un foisonnement d’écrits historiques et de représentations populaires sur la Première guerre mondiale. Il existe à présent en Grande Bretagne deux visions de la guerre, et leur co-existence est perçue par certains historiens militaires et politiques en termes de guerre de représentations qui opposerait deux « Fronts de l’Ouest », à savoir le front de la littérature et de la culture populaire d’une part, et celui de l’histoire d’autre part. Alors que les partisans de l’histoire tentent de découvrir et transmettre la « vérité » sur le conflit, les autres perpétuent ce qu’on appelle le « mythe » de la Grande Guerre, c’est-à-dire une version erronée et émotive des événements. Cette dissertation doctorale examine quatorze des romans et nouvelles britanniques publiés pendant le « war books boom » de la fin du vingtième siècle et examine ces sévères reproches d’ahistoricité et manque d’imagination créative. Nous cherchons à établir sous quelles formes, dans quels buts et avec quels effets la Première guerre mondiale est revenue dans la fiction britannique contemporaine. La première partie examine les sévères critiques tenues par les historiens militaires à l’encontre de la « WWI fiction » contemporaine. Le premier chapitre définit le terme « mythe » et la place spéciale qu’il occupe dans la pensée humaine en tant qu’histoire fondatrice ; il explique également comment l’événement historique de la Première guerre mondiale est entré dans la mythologie nationale britannique. Le deuxième chapitre décrit les quatre éléments fondamentaux du scénario mythique de la Grande Guerre (c’est-à-dire l’horreur, la mort, l’absurdité, et l’incompétence des généraux). Il montre comment ces derniers ont modelé les œuvres de notre corpus et comment les auteurs contemporains ont tenté de se distancier du langage et des images transmis par les poètes des tranchées en racontant les récits de guerre restés inexprimés et réinscrivant les femmes et la classe ouvrière dans la mémoire postmoderne du conflit. Le troisième chapitre examine le dialogue intertextuel que les auteurs contemporains établissent avec les écrivains des tranchées, leurs « ancêtres poétiques ». Les deuxième et troisième parties se focalisent sur le concept de mémoire dans les réécritures contemporaines de la Première guerre mondiale. La deuxième partie examine le phénomène de « shell shock » en tant qu’héritage de guerre : la mémoire est en général problématisée comme trauma, comme un événement impossible à intégrer et qui subsiste et persiste comme un poids dans la mémoire individuelle et collective. Le quatrième chapitre explique comment le shell shock est devenu un élément central du mythe de la guerre et fournit un cadre théorique aux exercices de « close reading » qui suivent dans les chapitres cinq et six. Ces deux chapitres montrent comment cinq romans appartenant au genre de la « trauma fiction » (i.e. la trilogie Regeneration et Another World de Pat Barker, ainsi que In Desolate Heaven de Robert Edric) se confrontent à la peur contemporaine d’un possible retour du passé comme revenant et d’une transmission par contagion du trauma. Ces chapitres posent également les questions de la politique de la mémoire, de la pertinence de la narration historique, et de l’éthique de la représentation historique. La troisième partie se penche sur les notions de commémoration et devoir de mémoire, problématisées dans toutes les œuvres du corpus. La plupart des romans contemporains de la Grande Guerre replacent le conflit dans une perspective plus large, celle de tout un siècle, reconnaissant ainsi leur position posthistorique. Le septième chapitre examine la crainte d’un passé mis en danger par l’oubli, les effets du temps et le travail de l’histoire. Le huitième chapitre montre que le sauvetage du passé prend souvent la forme d’une enquête, une métaphore qui met en évidence la double nature de la mémoire comme contenu et process ainsi que la textualité du passé, et remet donc en question la possibilité même de connaître le passé. Le neuvième et dernier chapitre examine les lieux de mémoire, les traces (textuelles) du passé qui rendent cette enquête (im)possible.

The following report describes the pre-production, production, and post-production of the short film, 8.BIT.BROS, designed from its inception to fully exploit the years-developed, cumulative and varied skills of its director. The fantastical narrative focuses on the strained emotional dynamic between two adult brothers that have yet to come to terms with having witnessed their father’s death as children. Their trauma is dramatized and encapsulated in the videogame-themed psychotic hallucinations of the film’s protagonist. The director’s specialized skill-set was put to practical use in both the creation of animatronic creature effect, “Commander Gorgo,” and during the post-production phase of the film, wherein green screen compositing, animation, and motion graphics were used at length to bring the narrative life. / text

Die vorliegende Studie beschäftigt sich mit dem Phänomen der zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten. Ausgangspunkt ist die außergewöhnlich hohe Anzahl an veröffentlichten Geistergeschichten, die es um bzw. seit Anfang der Jahrtausendwende gab. Die Besonderheit liegt darin, das Kanada gemäß seines Selbstverständnisses ein „matter-of-fact-country“ ist, das im Gegensatz zu seinem südlichen Nachbarn, den USA, weder Gründungsmythen noch eine reichhaltige Tradition an Schauerliteratur vorweisen kann. Dieses Phänomen wird unter einer ästhetisch-ontologischen Perspektive untersucht. Mithilfe romantischer Philosophie (v.a. Friedrich J. W. Schelling), aber auch zeitgenössischen philosophischen Ansätzen sowie traditionellen Mythen kann erklärt werden, dass die Aufklärung und der damit einhergehenden rationalen rationalen Weltsicht, die nicht zuletzt die Kolonialgeschichte bestimmte, in sich begrenzt ist – schließlich kreiert die Aufklärung selbst einen neuen Mythos: nämlich den von ihrer Allmacht. In dieser Arbeit wird dargelegt, dass es ein menschliches Bestreben ist die Welt eben nicht nur rational und logisch zu betrachten. In diesem Sinne verstehen sich, so die These, die Geistergeschichten als ein längst überfälliges Gegenspiel zum rationalistischen Selbstverständnis der kanadischen Kultur. In diesem Zusammenhang setzt sich die Arbeit mit theoretischen Ansätzen wie der Schauerliteratur und des Magischen Realismus kritisch auseinander und schlägt vor eine pantheistische Lesart zu entwickeln (pantheistisch, da in den Geschichten alle übersinnlichen Kräfte der Welt immanent sind). Diese Studie zeigt, dass die Geister andere Semantiken aufweisen als bei der konventionellen Schauerliteratur: Wo in klassischer Schauerliteratur die Geister eine Bedrohung darstellen, werden sie in den zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten als der Erde zugehörig aufgefasst. Es handelt sich also um eine lebensbejahende Form der Einschreibung von Magie in die (Lebens-)Welt, die zugleich dem menschlichen Bedürfnis nachkommt die Welt über Mythen – und keine rationale Sicht – zu erklären. Unter Betrachtung dieser Prämissen werden folgende Geistergeschichten untersucht: Tomson Highways „Kiss of the Fur Queen“ (1998), Eden Robinsons „Monkey Beach“ (2000), Kenneth J. Harveys „The Town that Forgot How to Breathe“ (2004), Joseph Boydens „Three Day Road“ (2005) und David Chariandys „Soucouyant“ (2007).

The object of this study is to investigate the structure and the representation of Magical Realism in the novel Pedro Páramo by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo. The intention is to show the reader of this study some distinguished aspects of the Magical Realism and how this aspects are shown in the novel. The analysis is made with the help of some theories of how the structure of a text works. We have then compared the structure with some general aspects of the Magical Realism. We are bringing up different parts such as the topic, the characters and the room. Furthermore this study is based on the premise that many people characterize this novel being one of the first Latin-American novels using Magical Realism, but also making use of a complex structure that easily confuse the reader and the interpretation of the novel. Our study shows that the structure of Pedro Páramo is very extraordinary but at the same time the novel contains many general aspects of the Magical Realism. One example is the timeaspect, jumping back and forth. Another is the symbolism between the nature and some different scenarios of the story. Last but not least we have the topic of death. The aim of the essay is mainly to bring some clearness and to help other readers to interpret and analyze this fantastic novel.

In the presented thesis I focused on the translations (specifically between Czech and German) of a particular literary movement, that appeared in the first half of the 20th century - of magic(al) realism. As for the topic and metodological directing of the thesis, it falls within the history of translation. The main aim is to present the original literary production of magical realism in the German speaking countries and in Bohemia and to demonstrate, to what extent the both cultural areas have connected during the existence of magical realism by means of translations. The research is led especially with quantitative respect - I primarily focus on collecting of the originals and their translations (if there are any). By the existing translations I studied mainly the cultural-historical context of their origin and their eventual integration into the literary tradition of the target culture. Finding out the number of existing translations proceeded in form of extensive searches in the national libraries. It shows itself that only ca. one third of the so called magical realist titles was translated from German into Czech so far. From the Czech titles around a half came out in German. Though this thesis cannot be taken as an exhaustive summary of all topics bound with magical realism from the point of...

(anglicky) The goal of my diploma thesis is to analyze Yury Buida`s prose mainly focusing on his cycle Prussian Bride, in which I will be looking for the elements typical for magical realism literature. Another question I will be exploring in this work is going to be a reflection of a historical memory of Kaliningrad Oblast inhabitants. I will be working with the works about magical realism including the one about the magical realism in Yury Buida`s work specifically, as well as with a selection of materials about historical and traumatic collective memory. The contribution of this work will be in a form of Yury Buida`s work analysis (which has not been properly studied until now) and its` representation in a context of a modern European literature studies. Key words: cycle, magical realism, memory, trauma, Yury Buida, Russian Literature of the 20th century

Die vorliegende Studie beschäftigt sich mit dem Phänomen der zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten. Ausgangspunkt ist die außergewöhnlich hohe Anzahl an veröffentlichten Geistergeschichten, die es um bzw. seit Anfang der Jahrtausendwende gab. Die Besonderheit liegt darin, das Kanada gemäß seines Selbstverständnisses ein „matter-of-fact-country“ ist, das im Gegensatz zu seinem südlichen Nachbarn, den USA, weder Gründungsmythen noch eine reichhaltige Tradition an Schauerliteratur vorweisen kann. Dieses Phänomen wird unter einer ästhetisch-ontologischen Perspektive untersucht. Mithilfe romantischer Philosophie (v.a. Friedrich J. W. Schelling), aber auch zeitgenössischen philosophischen Ansätzen sowie traditionellen Mythen kann erklärt werden, dass die Aufklärung und der damit einhergehenden rationalen rationalen Weltsicht, die nicht zuletzt die Kolonialgeschichte bestimmte, in sich begrenzt ist – schließlich kreiert die Aufklärung selbst einen neuen Mythos: nämlich den von ihrer Allmacht. In dieser Arbeit wird dargelegt, dass es ein menschliches Bestreben ist die Welt eben nicht nur rational und logisch zu betrachten. In diesem Sinne verstehen sich, so die These, die Geistergeschichten als ein längst überfälliges Gegenspiel zum rationalistischen Selbstverständnis der kanadischen Kultur. In diesem Zusammenhang setzt sich die Arbeit mit theoretischen Ansätzen wie der Schauerliteratur und des Magischen Realismus kritisch auseinander und schlägt vor eine pantheistische Lesart zu entwickeln (pantheistisch, da in den Geschichten alle übersinnlichen Kräfte der Welt immanent sind). Diese Studie zeigt, dass die Geister andere Semantiken aufweisen als bei der konventionellen Schauerliteratur: Wo in klassischer Schauerliteratur die Geister eine Bedrohung darstellen, werden sie in den zeitgenössischen kanadischen Geistergeschichten als der Erde zugehörig aufgefasst. Es handelt sich also um eine lebensbejahende Form der Einschreibung von Magie in die (Lebens-)Welt, die zugleich dem menschlichen Bedürfnis nachkommt die Welt über Mythen – und keine rationale Sicht – zu erklären. Unter Betrachtung dieser Prämissen werden folgende Geistergeschichten untersucht: Tomson Highways „Kiss of the Fur Queen“ (1998), Eden Robinsons „Monkey Beach“ (2000), Kenneth J. Harveys „The Town that Forgot How to Breathe“ (2004), Joseph Boydens „Three Day Road“ (2005) und David Chariandys „Soucouyant“ (2007).

This thesis examines the work of the contemporary exilic Iraqi author Ḥasan Blāsim within the framework of magical realism. At the same time it argues for a more formalistic and wider definition of magical realism, which also includes fiction without any supernatural elements. Magical realistic components found in the short story collection Majnūn sāḥat al-ḥurrīya (The Madman of Freedom Square) underline the most important themes in the stories. These are related to the catastrophes that afflicted Iraq and its people in the course of last thirty years. With its emphasis on the documentation of modern Iraqi history dominated by war and exile Blāsim's work belongs to the genre of documentary narrative. The goal of documentary narrative is to contribute to the collective memory of a nation. Despite Blāsim's focus on documenting, magical realism in his work cannot be considered as an attempt to create a parallel cultural world. The supernatural in his stories functions metaphorically and relates exclusively to the real world of war and violence, in which people under heavy circumstances turn into animals, cannibals, which is magical in itself. In addition, Blāsim's work is on a subordinate level discussed from the perspective of postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory has undergone a complicated...

Student Number : 7805464 - MA dissertation - School of SLLS - Faculty of Arts / This dissertation interrogates Anne Landsman’s The Devil’s Chimney. The novel is narrated by the poor-white alcoholic, Connie, who imagines a story about Beatrice, an English colonist living on a farm in the Little Karoo. Connie, who is a product of the apartheid era, interweaves her own story with that of Beatrice’s and, in this way, comes to terms with her own memories, her abusive husband and the new South Africa. Connie deploys the genre of magical realism to create a defamiliarised farm setting for Beatrice’s narrative. She thus challenges the stereotypes associated with the traditional plaasroman and its patriarchal codes. These codes are also subverted in Connie’s representation of Beatrice, who contests her identity as the authoritative Englishwoman, as constructed by colonial discourse. In addition, Beatrice’s black domestic, Nomsa, is given voice and agency: facilities denied to her counterparts in colonial and apartheid fiction. Nomsa’s relationship with Beatrice is also characterised by subversion as it blurs the boundaries between colonised and coloniser. In this regard, the text demands a postcolonial reading. Connie, in narrating Beatrice’s and Nomsa’s stories, reinvents their invisible lives and, by doing so, is able to rewrite herself. In this, she tentatively envisions a future for herself and also potentially ‘narrates’ the nation, thus contributing to the new national literature. The nation is inscribed in the Cango caves, whose spaces witness the seminal episodes in Beatrice’s narrative. In these events, the caves ‘write’ the female body and women’s sexuality and the text thus calls for an engagement with feminism. The caves also inscribe South African history, the Western literary canon, the imagination and Landsman’s own voice. Hence, the caves assume the characteristics of a palimpsest. This, together with the metafictive elements of the novel, invites an encounter with postmodernism.

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